Miranda Marie

Tagging onto this post to ask: Are there inkbirds that can control more than one aquarium or do you have to buy one for each tank?

I agree. Spiderwood barely adds any brown tint to the water, if at all. It's also well suited to small tanks like a 10 gallon.

Air stones never hurt CO2 levels in low tech, and especially in tanks without injected CO2, they actually help with it. The only CO2 you have in the tank with no injection is what the fish produce (next to nothing generally), what the plants themselves produce during lights out, and what you are pumping in with air/surface agitation. So more surface agitation actually equals better CO2 in that case.

I've had great luck with Aquahuna. That said, we aren't allowed to discuss competitors (aside from the two listed in the comment above, since they are partners with aquarium co op) on the forum.

Both of my bettas have been in 5 gallon tanks with a nerite snail and never have bothered or cared about the snail. 🙂 They ignore each other equally.

Both of my bettas have been completely indifferent to nerite snails, if that helps! But generally diatoms clear themselves up in a few months.

6.8 is getting towards softer water, which some fish don't like as well and some fish prefer more. It just deoends on the species. Like others have said, there are some hardier fish species that don't care that you could try. 6.8 itself isn't that bad, but I'd be a bit more conscientious of what fish I got as things like driftwood and lack of water changes could soften it further over time. Still, 6.8 isn't crazy outside the normal.

None of those perimeters look too far on any end of the spectrum. They actually seem to be sitting pretty much in the middle, or the "ideal" for most fish. As long as you aren't intending to put fish that need crazy hard or very soft water (which would be noted on care guides when you do some research), you can probably do just about anything with water like that.

When you stop seeing any nitrite and ammonia for several weeks. You should see 0 of both those numbers and only be seeing nitrate if it is cycled. It's likely your tank was cycled before you changed the filter media/cartridge and now you are experiencing a bacteria bloom as the colonies try to recover from you removing a large portion of them from the tank.

*Anything* you feed will elevate the nitrite levels. Fish food breaking down and fish pooping is what causes ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. So anything you put in the tank to feed the fish will contribute.

It's hard to tell from the photos, but another way to help would be to add a pre-filter sponge on the intake tube, if the filter allows it. I keep one on mine to prevent shrimp getting in, and it adds another place for beneficial bacteria to live! This is the one I use: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/pre-filter-sponge

How did you cycle it originally, how long has it been set up, and how many fish did you add 3 weeks ago?

They're talking about something similar to this. You can cut it to fit any filter and it never needs replaced. It's also way better for your tank than cartridges that have to be tossed, because every time you do that, it ditches a large portion of your biological filtration (beneficial bacteria). https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/sponge-pad-coarse

When I first got my shrimp, I had them in a quarantine tub with one singular tiny bonzai tree. I swore they had all died. I could not see them /anywhere/. Finally I pulled the tree out and it was like they'd all materialized out of nowhere. For reference, mine were the Dream Blue variety, the quarantine tub had zero substrate etc, and I literally couldn't find them for several days. Give it a few months. I rarely saw mine in my tank until suddenly there were 8393846382 babies everywhere.

Sensei Fish has now been moved to his permanent home! It's been 3 days since his move and he is much more active and engaging with the environment than he was in quarantine. So far, he has made the discoveries of: 1) Sand is NOT an endless banquet of food and is, in fact, disgusting. He attempted to eat it multiple times on the first day and looked highly insulted that it never tasted delicious. 2) The jungle of plants doesn't house a terrifying monster the way he thought it might on Day One. In fact, *he* is now the monster that lurks within it. He wouldn't go anywhere near the plants at first and seemed very wary of them, probably because I left the light out as to not stress him and it looked like just the place something dangerous might be lurking just out of sight. Once the light was on, on day two, he decided it was actually rather fun in the bowl and now seems to rate it 10/10, would recommend. 3) The snail gets shrimp pellets occasionally and his foolish owners popped one in without thinking and then watched in horror as Sensei ate the entire thing whole. Apparently, him spitting out flakes because they were "just a smidgen too big" was all a con that I fell for. He's been using me to be lazy. 4) Peas are his new mortal foe. I fasted him and then added a pea the day after he devoured the entire shrimp pellet, because I was worried about bloat, and he spent the next 6 hours stalking and attacking the pea viciously. So now I know what to add if he is bored and needs enrichment. I think that's all for now. Here's a picture for anyone wanting to see the grumpy old man in his forever home. He's showing off his beautiful self in the hopes of convincing me he is starving and should definitely not still be on a fast.